Poker Video: No Limit Hold'Em by WiltOnTilt (Mid Stakes)

Wow you really listen to our comments.
I got DC subscription because of your series, and I never can wait for the next one.

The reason is not at all the specific spots you get into, there are better videos for that out there, its the continuity of the series and Alex's story and progress.
Its like one of them addictive reality shows.
Thats why I was a little bit disappointed by especially the second episode as it was just a bunch of NL200 spots.

Thank you for approaching this episode in this way, and if you could spend 5 minutes at the beginning of the future ones to give update on Alex's progress (some graphs maybe? ), that would be much appreciated!

Thanks WhiteheatSYD,

For putting yourself out there like this, and showing the "Real Life" of your situation. I'm going through a bit of this myself. I can in no way compare it, cause if I lost 20 buyins it'd be less than 1 buy in here. However to see how you look at it and deal with it is extremely helpful.

WOT-
46:00 mark
In the spot where WHS shoves KK on the A turn , and you go into a kind of ramble, being micro stakes player, you can probably understand when I say "I got lost". Would it be possible for you to re explain it here.

Is it that if the turn goes C/C and "Then he checks the river" and we shove. It's a case of we know he would bet either the A or the flush by now so our shove can be a bluff but it can also be for then value as well, so if we wanna rep a bluff its best to do it on the turn? Sorry if I'm way off but I'm trying to figure it out.

WOT-
46:00 mark
Is it that if the turn goes C/C and "Then he checks the river" and we shove. It's a case of we know he would bet either the A or the flush by now so our shove can be a bluff but it can also be for then value as well, so if we wanna rep a bluff its best to do it on the turn? Sorry if I'm way off but I'm trying to figure it out.

I think the reasoning is because its really hard to get to the river with a bluff if we check the turn. Lets just use an example to say that we were really FPSing and we 3bet-squeeze the guy with 27o and he calls. After we cbet the flop with air and we get called, his hand is pretty much faceup as either QQ-JJ or slowplayed monster, so when the As comes its going to be pretty scary to him so if we have a total airball on the river we are going to be thinking "awesome a barrel card" and shove hoping to get him to fold his pocket pair. By checking however, not only do we show that we have showdown value because we are taking a line that is more likely to go to showdown then to either put money in the pot or fold, it is less likely that he is going to call a river bet because we are always doing it for value, since if we were betting as a bluff doing so on the turn is a much better spot.

Basically we are expecting him to have atleast a slightly higher level of thinking. We know, and he knows that the A is a scary card, so if we want him to FOLD we will bet it and if we dont we will CHECK it(flawed reasoning, but very basic thinking). So that when we CHECK and then bet it looks like we do not want him to fold

This is where WoT kind of went on his tangent, because this is a pretty common leveling spot. Lets relook at the same situation, but instead of 2 50 cent dollar players we put WoT and another 25/50 reg. If WoT has 27o in this spot, he knows that it looks like he wants a call if he checks and then bets, so he checks with the intention of making his hand look like it wants a call to someone thinking on the level who understands that checking back=showdown value so that he can bluff the river with 27o and get more folds from QQ then if he had shoved against a thinking player on the flop.

Time Link to 00:07:43

Haha, its a good thing that you have to go through your database to see how many $$$ you lost by mistakes.

I know that 2 seconds after each hand finishes where I set up a clear plan in my mind and my hands do the exact opposite because I am a notorious gambler and degenerate deep inside

Thanks SYD for putting up your debrief form and for putting yourself out there.

WOT - brilliant to let the series follow the truh of the situation. Better than reality TV due to the absence of contriving drama. Just the meat of working it through is great for players working hard at all levels.

Can you talk a little bit more about how you went about faultfinding in your session?

Did you use filters or did you pick big hands? And how did you determine the monetary value of your mistakes?

Would be great if you could post an example hand history in here or in your blog with your routine.

Apart from that, great series and good luck.

Great episode! I loved the post-session scorecard. I hope it is open source

Wow you really listen to our comments.
I got DC subscription because of your series, and I never can wait for the next one.

The reason is not at all the specific spots you get into, there are better videos for that out there, its the continuity of the series and Alex's story and progress.
Its like one of them addictive reality shows.
Thats why I was a little bit disappointed by especially the second episode as it was just a bunch of NL200 spots.

Thank you for approaching this episode in this way, and if you could spend 5 minutes at the beginning of the future ones to give update on Alex's progress (some graphs maybe? ), that would be much appreciated!

More than happy to add a progress report at the start of each episode. We are trying to put out the content you guys want. So keep the comments coming.

Can you talk a little bit more about how you went about faultfinding in your session?

Did you use filters or did you pick big hands? And how did you determine the monetary value of your mistakes?

Would be great if you could post an example hand history in here or in your blog with your routine.

Apart from that, great series and good luck.

I basically went through all of the hands during a session. Not just the big ones, I looked at every hand that I voluntary put money in the pot. As a lot of the big pots are just coolers, and your true win rate comes from what you do time and time again. I looked at both my winning and losing hands.

For example in this hand, I miss played the turn and river pretty badly, so this is a $60 mistake.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 441665
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $121.30
CO: $73.15
BTN: $102.15
Hero (SB): $100.50
BB: $24.25

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with Q K
1 fold, CO calls $1, BTN raises to $5, Hero calls $4.50, 2 folds

Flop: ($12.00) 2 6 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $9, Hero raises to $27, BTN calls $18

Turn: ($66.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $30, Hero calls $30

River: ($126.00) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $40.15 all in, Hero calls $38.50 all in

Final Pot: $203.00
BTN shows 2 2 (three of a kind, Twos)
Hero mucks Q K
BTN wins $200.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Will try and pull out some bet sizing examples, when I can find them.

Another advantage of look at a whole session, you can get a feel for houw you are playing after winning or losing big pots etc.

Time Link to 01:05:54

In my experience @ FTP NL100 they will tank with any K here, but NEVER fold. And why would he fold KJ when he calls with KQ? Its almost the same hand and beats Heros bluffs. I may even get called from a 7 here.
And hey, TP in 3bet pot vs aggro reg = The NUTS
I would just give up on the turn, Regs don't like to fold when the board paired

great job

In my experience @ FTP NL100 they will tank with any K here, but NEVER fold. And why would he fold KJ when he calls with KQ? Its almost the same hand and beats Heros bluffs. I may even get called from a 7 here.
And hey, TP in 3bet pot vs aggro reg = The NUTS
I would just give up on the turn, Regs don't like to fold when the board paired

+1, I don't think anyone folds Kx here at NL100.

http://www.deucescracked.com/forums/4-General-Discussion/topics/59281-please-take-a-look-at-my-

Time Link to 01:04:24

aejones said that paired boards are terrible to barrell in general, could you expand on this a little bit please WoT?

aejones said that paired boards are terrible to barrell in general, could you expand on this a little bit please WoT?

When the paired board arrives, it may be a bad board to barrell on the turn. But I feel if you bet the turn on this board, you have to fire the river bet. As it goes like this on a Queen high board...as the villain, i have 99, I am never folding to his cbet, ok the turn is another queen, there are less combo's he can have I am calling. He as to be hung pretty well to call a third bet....imo

i dont fully understand the concept/theory behind good and bad turn cards to barrell so thats why i'd like to get WoT's general perspective on turn barrells, i'm not particularly bothered about the individual hand itself more about the concept, i was only asking for clarification on the general theory not disregaring your individual thought process for the specific hand if that makes sense?

I lurked your tableratings to see how things were going before watching this series in full (which I plan to catch up on asap) so idk if this has been discussed but I really think you should stop putting in a large portion of your hands when the sessions are going poorly. Playing these long sessions that kill your confidence and erase alot of hard work are just not worth it. If you feel a bad session coming on just quit as soon as possible. Ya it might be tough, but really, just quit. Losing a little at one sitting is obv way better then losing alot. Even if you analyze your play and it's technically sound, it's still hard to come back from a big losing session. If you're running well that's when you should be pushing it imo. I mean, I know you've probably had discussions about this before, but if it's not something you're focussing on at the moment you really should. I think if you do this you'll start winning more, with less stress and with greater consistency. I've tried to stick with this after having to rebuild from 10nl (lol ya, never again) and it has really helped me. I'm offering this advice (even though I risk echoing others) because I think we all want to see you pull out of this phase and start crushing.

Btw when writing this I tried to word it in a way that wouldn't make me sound like some guy who thinks he's the next Tommy Angelo or something. Took me longer then it should've, so I hope it was worth it and that you appreciate my hard work aha. Gl dude, stay focused

I lurked your tableratings to see how things were going before watching this series in full (which I plan to catch up on asap) so idk if this has been discussed but I really think you should stop putting in a large portion of your hands when the sessions are going poorly. Playing these long sessions that kill your confidence and erase alot of hard work are just not worth it. If you feel a bad session coming on just quit as soon as possible. Ya it might be tough, but really, just quit. Losing a little at one sitting is obv way better then losing alot. Even if you analyze your play and it's technically sound, it's still hard to come back from a big losing session. If you're running well that's when you should be pushing it imo. I mean, I know you've probably had discussions about this before, but if it's not something you're focussing on at the moment you really should. I think if you do this you'll start winning more, with less stress and with greater consistency. I've tried to stick with this after having to rebuild from 10nl (lol ya, never again) and it has really helped me. I'm offering this advice (even though I risk echoing others) because I think we all want to see you pull out of this phase and start crushing.

Btw when writing this I tried to word it in a way that wouldn't make me sound like some guy who thinks he's the next Tommy Angelo or something. Took me longer then it should've, so I hope it was worth it and that you appreciate my hard work aha. Gl dude, stay focused

sick post

Time Link to 00:30:07

I agree that villain is not going to c/r here all that frequently, however what I am wondering is whether we should still bet for protection despite having blockers to pair plus straight draw, if he has those type of hands in his pf raising range. Because if he is double barrelling with all his overcards plus flush draw here, I think we are going to value town ourselves against his c/c range or you think there is still more merit to shut down all hands that have 2-9 outs against us.

Nice video guys , one thing i liked from the original grinder series was when you brought other coaches in to help see there thoughts on SYDs game. I think it would be nice to hear other 100nl / 200nl pro grinders that have been through these experiences , either a coach like jk3a , grindcore or even a forum member.

This video was good but doing a HH review like this can be slow and long , you only got to review a few hands. I would rather see a review of session SYD played , perhaps a recorded session inwhich he felt he struggled. Thats just my opinion , either way i look forward to the next.

I lurked your tableratings to see how things were going before watching this series in full (which I plan to catch up on asap) so idk if this has been discussed but I really think you should stop putting in a large portion of your hands when the sessions are going poorly. Playing these long sessions that kill your confidence and erase alot of hard work are just not worth it. If you feel a bad session coming on just quit as soon as possible. Ya it might be tough, but really, just quit. Losing a little at one sitting is obv way better then losing alot. Even if you analyze your play and it's technically sound, it's still hard to come back from a big losing session. If you're running well that's when you should be pushing it imo. I mean, I know you've probably had discussions about this before, but if it's not something you're focussing on at the moment you really should. I think if you do this you'll start winning more, with less stress and with greater consistency. I've tried to stick with this after having to rebuild from 10nl (lol ya, never again) and it has really helped me. I'm offering this advice (even though I risk echoing others) because I think we all want to see you pull out of this phase and start crushing.

Btw when writing this I tried to word it in a way that wouldn't make me sound like some guy who thinks he's the next Tommy Angelo or something. Took me longer then it should've, so I hope it was worth it and that you appreciate my hard work aha. Gl dude, stay focused

Listen to this man.

I have some days where I play 'fulltime' poker and I end up playing 1400 hands because I am tilted/sessions are not going well and so should you

Thx guys - This was a really strong episode.

Alex, I expect that we've all experienced the type of downswing that you've outlined in your graph - Where days of hard/solid effort has been wiped away in a few hours. The trick now is to teach yourself (and us) how to minimize these!

Wilt, something that you said struck a chord with me - You'll know that I've been a bit critical of pushing thin value bets (at this level) - Thinking that they're verging on neutral at best - What I got from your explanation is that, at a meta-game level, this style of play is crucial. I guess you're implying that the style sets up future opportunities for big scores when you're holding the strong hands. The analogy ("ball of fury") tells us of the mindset we should be adopting. Controlling the aggression is where the skill is...... Maybe a nice theme for a future episode could be "being table captain"?

Looking forward to the next installment - for now Happy New Decade!

Last hand, what'd villain have?

Hi guys,

Really enjoying this series so far.
Ive been wondering thou how did you WhiteHeatSYD made this post-session sheet? Using what software? Cant figure it out. Would be supercool if you could upload this sheet

About AJ bluff: i don't think villain is folding significant amount of time holding KQ. From my experience people don't fold TPs in 3bet pots. I mean you can really thought this bluff through, but villain is still "I called it pf to hit that flop" etc. If you know villain very well and know that he is capable of laying down strong hands , i guess it's well played.

About tilting when losing/winning: I noticed that when I win significant amount of money in a short time, i start playing too loose postflop and don't focus at what's going on, my thought process is deteriorating, clearly i start to play my not A game. Today had some luck winning 4BI in like 30mins, and i decided to quit.
It's not the best situation, but when you know you are not capable of playing your A+ game it's the most +EV one. Ideal situation is when winning big/losing big doesn't affect your game at all, but as long as i'm not that tiltless I prefer quitting and taking care of my bankroll.

Awesome episode
I'm really looking forward to the playing vs regulars / from blinds common spots. Hope you'll still have room for it in the series.

I lurked your tableratings to see how things were going before watching this series in full (which I plan to catch up on asap) so idk if this has been discussed but I really think you should stop putting in a large portion of your hands when the sessions are going poorly. Playing these long sessions that kill your confidence and erase alot of hard work are just not worth it. If you feel a bad session coming on just quit as soon as possible. Ya it might be tough, but really, just quit. Losing a little at one sitting is obv way better then losing alot. Even if you analyze your play and it's technically sound, it's still hard to come back from a big losing session. If you're running well that's when you should be pushing it imo. I mean, I know you've probably had discussions about this before, but if it's not something you're focussing on at the moment you really should. I think if you do this you'll start winning more, with less stress and with greater consistency. I've tried to stick with this after having to rebuild from 10nl (lol ya, never again) and it has really helped me. I'm offering this advice (even though I risk echoing others) because I think we all want to see you pull out of this phase and start crushing.

Btw when writing this I tried to word it in a way that wouldn't make me sound like some guy who thinks he's the next Tommy Angelo or something. Took me longer then it should've, so I hope it was worth it and that you appreciate my hard work aha. Gl dude, stay focused

I'm one of the guys that went through that massive session review with Alex and before we even started we talked about quitting. More specifically, scheduling.

What I did is go out to google calendar and schedule sessions. 90 minutes on then 30 minutes off. From 10 AM to 10PM on Fri Sat Sun and from 12-8 on Tues, Wed, Thurs. The idea is to limit the amount of tilty sessions where you're just trying to get even AND to make sure you put in sufficient volume because it's exceptionally easy to skip a session or two and play WoW or play with your dog or any of a number of things that are good in life but don't pay particularly well.

I basically went through all of the hands during a session. Not just the big ones, I looked at every hand that I voluntary put money in the pot. As a lot of the big pots are just coolers, and your true win rate comes from what you do time and time again. I looked at both my winning and losing hands.

For example in this hand, I miss played the turn and river pretty badly, so this is a $60 mistake.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players - View hand 441665
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $121.30
CO: $73.15
BTN: $102.15
Hero (SB): $100.50
BB: $24.25

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with Q K
1 fold, CO calls $1, BTN raises to $5, Hero calls $4.50, 2 folds

Flop: ($12.00) 2 6 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $9, Hero raises to $27, BTN calls $18

Turn: ($66.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $30, Hero calls $30

River: ($126.00) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $40.15 all in, Hero calls $38.50 all in

Final Pot: $203.00
BTN shows 2 2 (three of a kind, Twos)
Hero mucks Q K
BTN wins $200.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Will try and pull out some bet sizing examples, when I can find them.

Another advantage of look at a whole session, you can get a feel for houw you are playing after winning or losing big pots etc.

How would you have played the turn?

I'm one of the guys that went through that massive session review with Alex and before we even started we talked about quitting. More specifically, scheduling.

What I did is go out to google calendar and schedule sessions. 90 minutes on then 30 minutes off. From 10 AM to 10PM on Fri Sat Sun and from 12-8 on Tues, Wed, Thurs. The idea is to limit the amount of tilty sessions where you're just trying to get even AND to make sure you put in sufficient volume because it's exceptionally easy to skip a session or two and play WoW or play with your dog or any of a number of things that are good in life but don't pay particularly well.

I've got a few questions about this, since only recently has poker become my main professional pursuit.

1) Looking at the schedule, Monday is Alex's only day off. Also, he's got his evenings free on the other 6 days. How did you come up with this schedule? Did you just identify the non-poker, social type of activities Alex usually has going on most Mondays and evenings, and schedule poker around them? For me, it's a bit tough because my social opportunities are either not known that far in advance, inconsistent and not usually at a predictable time every week, or on weekend days and nights which conflict with the best time to play poker.

2) One thing that tends to throw off my calendaring or scheduling efforts is sleep. I usually go to bed around 3am, give or take. I try to get 8 hours of sleep, and if I don't I'm not 100% mentally sharp. Some days I can sleep until my alarm at 11am, but some days I'll wake up at 10am or earlier and can't get back to sleep. So, I'll often lay in bed for up to an hour, but it often does no good. Then I'll get up and make breakfast, workout, study, etc., but I know that if I try to play I'll be playing my B-game at best. So, I don't even bother. Then by the time I'm tired enough to try to take a nap, it's maybe 3pm. I get up at 4, and by the time I grab some food and get ready to play, it can be 5 or 6. This is obviously one of my biggest hurdles when it comes to putting the hours in.

3) When I'm getting hammered at the tables, I need to take a break. If it's bad enough, I'll need to take the rest of the day off otherwise I'll be playing a bit tilted. Sometimes I don't even want to come back the next day or even longer. How does the schedule take care of this if Alex loses say 5 BI's in his first session of the day? Is 30 minutes really enough for him to clear his head and come back fresh to play his A-game?

1) Looking at the schedule, Monday is Alex's only day off. Also, he's got his evenings free on the other 6 days. How did you come up with this schedule?

I think you're looking at my schedule.

I made it up by estimating my monthly expenses and win rate and estimating how many hands I needed to play and estimating how many hours it would take to play them.

I made Monday the day off because I felt I needed a regular day off and the games generally suck on Mondays. Also my wife works four days a week so she adjusted her schedule to have Mondays off as well. That means we both have a day off when stuff is open and most people are at work.

2) One thing that tends to throw off my calendaring or scheduling efforts is sleep.

Me too. I have insomnia pretty bad sometimes. Build a schedule with some flexibility. Schedule yourself more hours than are necessary so you can take an unexpected day off and not fall too far behind. Then you can swap study sessions and play sessions. B Game study is better than B game play.

3) When I'm getting hammered at the tables, I need to take a break.

Absolutely and obviously I have been there too. I have found that by designating sessions starting at particular times it's easier to skip one and get back in shape mentally for the next one. Obviously your results may vary but it's worth a try imo.

Also, I'm just a guy. Don't treat things I say like they're coming from some big expert.

i dont fully understand the concept/theory behind good and bad turn cards to barrell so thats why i'd like to get WoT's general perspective on turn barrells, i'm not particularly bothered about the individual hand itself more about the concept, i was only asking for clarification on the general theory not disregaring your individual thought process for the specific hand if that makes sense?

board pairing turns are not good cards to barrel in general because it usually means that a) they are obv not folding trips and b) they are generally not folding their top pair (or now their second pair if the top card pairs).

for instance, on 975r board, if the 9 pairs, they are more likely to call with a 7 and other pocket pairs. Similarly if the 7 pairs, they are still not folding the 9 that often etc. It reduces the number of combinations of big hands you can have when the board pairs and it adds another subset of hands that are simply "never" folding from your opponent...therefore it turns into tough territory to maneuver.

WoT

I agree that villain is not going to c/r here all that frequently, however what I am wondering is whether we should still bet for protection despite having blockers to pair plus straight draw, if he has those type of hands in his pf raising range. Because if he is double barrelling with all his overcards plus flush draw here, I think we are going to value town ourselves against his c/c range or you think there is still more merit to shut down all hands that have 2-9 outs against us.

a huge reason why we can be happy about betting this turn is because of the flop cbet size. i think his flop cbet size indicates more weak made hands and air in his cbet range than normal and therefore we simply stand to give him too much of an equity freeroll by checking behind the turn when we simply have teh best hand and best draw so very often. Plus, we can even call us with some worse made hands on this turn.

Hi guys,

Really enjoying this series so far.
Ive been wondering thou how did you WhiteHeatSYD made this post-session sheet? Using what software? Cant figure it out. Would be supercool if you could upload this sheet

About AJ bluff: i don't think villain is folding significant amount of time holding KQ. From my experience people don't fold TPs in 3bet pots. I mean you can really thought this bluff through, but villain is still "I called it pf to hit that flop" etc. If you know villain very well and know that he is capable of laying down strong hands , i guess it's well played.

About tilting when losing/winning: I noticed that when I win significant amount of money in a short time, i start playing too loose postflop and don't focus at what's going on, my thought process is deteriorating, clearly i start to play my not A game. Today had some luck winning 4BI in like 30mins, and i decided to quit.
It's not the best situation, but when you know you are not capable of playing your A+ game it's the most +EV one. Ideal situation is when winning big/losing big doesn't affect your game at all, but as long as i'm not that tiltless I prefer quitting and taking care of my bankroll.

yea i definitely agree that i should have been tougher on that bluff, i dont think the bluff is good and i probably sugar coated it a bit too much. hopefully the exercise i did with counting the combos showed that it's very very marginal at best.

Time Link to 00:58:53

Hey.
Why should one tend to bet call with AK in this spot and tend to bet fold 86? generally of course

Thanks

Hey.
Why should one tend to bet call with AK in this spot and tend to bet fold 86? generally of course

Thanks

i think what i was saying came across not how i wanted it to. we should bet bet/calling both hands. In some ways we would rather have Ak here than 68 because if the guy is capable of raising the flop with top pair (most are not raising J8 or similar here on the flop, unless it's reg on reg levelling reasons) then at least AK has 6 outs when we're behind whereas 86 only has 3. There just aren't enough value hands in most players' flop raising range to justify bet/folding 86 or AK here, and that was what i meant. Hopefully that clarifies.

WoT